Open the doors. We chase the paperwork.
Restaurants need an LLC, an EIN, food service permits, liquor licensing (where applicable), health department registration, city business licenses, sales tax registration, tipped-employee payroll, and a working POS. We handle the back-of-house paperwork so you can focus on the kitchen and the customers.
Built around how restaurants actually operate.
Three things you will not get from a generic formation site.
License lookup, city + state
Health, alcohol, sales tax permits surfaced as soon as you pick a city.
EIN + payroll-ready in days
Same-day SS-4 filing so you can run W-2s the week you open.
Multi-location foreign qualification
Open a second location across state lines without losing compliance status.
Everything a restaurant actually files.
Restaurants run on a stack of permits, licenses, and ongoing filings that no other business has to manage. We map every requirement for your specific city, county, and state.
From entity to opening night.
Form the LLC, get the EIN, file BOI. Register with the state as a food service business.
Map every required permit: city business license, county health permit, state food handler certification, music/entertainment, signage.
If serving alcohol, the ABC application is the long pole. We handle the documentation; some require background checks and posting.
Register for state sales tax permit. Many cities and states also have a separate meals/prepared-foods tax.
Set up payroll with tip reporting, multiple hourly rates, and FICA tip credit tracking.
Health department inspections tracked, ABC license renewals, annual reports, payroll taxes filed.
How customers like you use the platform.
"Between food service, liquor, music, and the city business license, I would have missed at least two. File.Business caught all six."
"NYC has a uniquely complicated stack of licenses. They walked us through every one, plus the sidewalk seating permit."
"Tipped payroll alone is worth the platform. Tip reporting was a monthly headache; now it just happens."
The File.Business Promise
If we miss a deadline on a service you pay us to manage, we cover the penalty. If you change your mind within 60 days, we refund our fee in full. Your data stays yours, always.
Common questions.
How many licenses does a restaurant need?
How long does liquor licensing take?
What is the FICA tip credit?
Meals tax vs sales tax?
Can I form a single LLC for multiple locations?
Do I need workers comp on day one?
What about catering or food trucks?
Multi-state expansion?
What if I franchise?
Pricing?
Start your restaurant LLC.
Tell us a few details. We do the rest. You get a single dashboard for everything.
220,000 founders, every kind of business.
On the $129/yr Compliance Annual Filings plan, we cover state late fees.
When you autofile your annual report through the $129/yr plan and we miss the deadline, we pay the state's late fee. The guarantee applies to that specific plan and the filings it includes. Other File.Business services are billed at the prices on this page.
Four steps from request to delivery
File.Business runs your filing on a single concierge workflow. You provide what we need; we handle the rest.
Tell us what you need
2-minute intake. We confirm the filing type, jurisdiction, and any supporting documents required.
We prepare the filing
Our specialists draft the document, validate against state requirements, and queue for your review where required.
We submit to the state
Filed through the state portal. We pay the state fee, track the submission, and resolve any state correspondence.
Confirmation in your vault
state-required document delivered to your SOC 2 encrypted document vault, with deadline tracking for the next filing.